Hi All,
Long train trip 9hrs. Most of the leaves are gone from the trees
but some still were full of pomegranates standing out boldly in red;
natures christmas trees. There also were pear trees with their yellow
fruit. Looks great. Most of the trees were in what looks to be the
community gardens. Much accommodation is medium density so there are
areas nearby divided with just fruit and vegetables and sheds.
Lots of deer in the fields. Groups of up to 10 at a time.
A few ugly cities along the way.
It wasn't a very interesting trip. Quite flat with lots of farm land.
Arrived
at Warsaw and ran the guantlet of some dodgy characters near the train
station and a struggle to find the hostel as their map was incorrect.
Not so well located but a bit of an oasis in the city. We were in a
cheap 12 bed dorm and it was looking good but again people coming in at
all hours turning on lights making lots of noise made sleep a problem.
We
wandered around the new old city. That is as the nazis systematically
destroyed the city after the polish uprising in the second world war.
The polish carefully started reconstructed the old city soon after the
war. It is a small old city but cannot compete with the beauty of
krakow or wroclaw. We went out to the uprising museum later in the day when the light was fading. Gets dark by 4pm now.
So
I was pretty tired after the string of broken nights sleep. Three men
who looked like builders rocked in and started making noise then went
out. They returned later and woke us up by turning on the lights and
then making a load of noise. One even scare a chinese girl into her
boyfriends bunk! There also was a group of philipino women power
chatting until late. That was enough for me. I blew a fuse, got out of
bed, complained and found that there was a 4 bed dorm with one person
and moved Vanessa and myself out of the 12 bed dorm at 130am. Would you
believe that that one other person in the 4 bed dorm turned on the
lights at 6am and made lots of noise. I wasn't impressed.
Next day.
Went
to pay for the next night in the dorm and was still boiling with
frustration with the lack of rule enforcement at the hostel. The desk
person told me that you have to expect noise as it is a hostel and the
dorm had been quiet when the staff had checked after I had
complained. I agreed that by that stage the noise makers had gone to
sleep and it was almost 1am!He nearly triggered my temper with his stupid comment.
Shopping
day. We decided to buy some snow boots and a large puffer jacket each.
We had jacket contenders at 50 zty each but poorly made then discovered
some expedition quality jackets that seemed perfect but were quite
expensive. The shop also had snow boots so by the end of the day we had
our boots and coats. The coats are duck down filled and weigh 2.5kg
each! Hope they do the job for the Russian winter conditions.
Packed our bags for the flight to Stockholm. Fingers crossed on the weight.
Finally
got a break. The 4 bed dorm was ours and we got a good nights sleep.
Well until about 430am. Must have gotten used to short sleeps as it was
difficult to get back to sleep.
Think the lesson is that the
cheapest dorm is not necessarily the best. There is no point if you
don't get enough sleep and in Poland where we have had so many problems
the dorm beds have been cheap. Spending money in a smaller dorm room
doesn't guarantee better sleep but it does reduce the risks and
probably improves the quality of dorm mates. Cheap beds attract the
lower end of the market. Another consideration is locations where cheap
airline carriers like ryanair and easyjet make stops as this brings in
the weekend warriors.
Early start. Got the bus to the airport and things went so well
that we were 2.5hrs early. Weighed our packs and Vanessa's weighed in
at 20.0kg and mine 19.6kg. Our day packs were 6kg and mine 9.5kg as it
was full of books. Phew. We wore our new coats to save weight.
We
had to take our bags to oversized luggage where they were scanned. The
scan on Vanessas pack showed a dark shadow that looked like a gun which
interested the security offical and I ended up having to unpack. The
gun turned out to be some cutlery lined up with a leatherman!
Bye,
David and Vanessa
